top swimmer Chris Flook has a realistic chance at qualifying for next Summer's Olympic Games, having been laid up for more than a year with a nagging shoulder injury.

Flook will see Dr. Cooper a week before Christmas in a bid to clear up the injury which has hampered his progress since last year's Commonwealth Games and he is hoping surgery is not needed to correct it.

The problem is a separation of the joint between the left shoulder and the collar bone, an injury he picked up in January 1992 while in college when he fell on the shoulder.

"With time and continuous training it just seems to get worst,'' explained Flook. "It's an injury you see a lot with rugby players.

"I got treatment for it but it's just a recurring injury. It's something that settles down but if I aggravate it all flares up again.'' Flook hasn't been able to train since the Commonwealth Games. He has seen specialists and therapists both here and overseas in a desperate attempt to correct the problem.

"I found it was so disheatening, you get to the pool and get yourself all psyched up for the practice and couldn't do it because of the shoulder.

"I've seen doctors here, doctors away and phsiotherapists away and they've all said pretty much the same thing, but with a few different ideas on how to fix it. Getting an operation is on the cards as well but I don't know if I want to get an operation because I don't know if it will make it better or worse.

"You don't know if it's going to limit your ability to move that joint. I think seeing Dr. Cooper will be the best thing and then go from there.'' Flook was seen as one of Bermuda's best Olympic hopefuls, and if the injury allows him to get back into the pool early in 1996 he does not rule out making a qualifying bid alongwith other swimmers Stephen Fahy and Stanley Harris who competed overseas recently.

However, he admits he often wonders if he will be able to swim again competitively.

"It's very much so been on my mind,'' admitted Flood. "I don't want to keep training if it's going to affect my life later on.

"Yes, it would be nice to swim but if it's going to threaten how I can use my arm later on in life it's out of the question. I think I can still qualify (for Olympics) though I haven't trained in the pool since Commonwealth but personally I think I can make the time with a bit of training.'' Flook's specialty is the 100 and 200 metres breaststroke, the events in which he won silver (100 metres) and bronze (200 metres) at the CAC Championships in Puerto Rico in 1993. At last year's Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada he was forced to pull out of the 200 breaststroke because of the injury.

Both events make their own demands on the shoulder, the 100 being faster and more intense and the 200 being longer and subsequently the shoulder being used for an extended period.

"It's going to affect the shoulder in two different ways completely,'' Flook explained.

"I find the movement when you pull down to the side and come in underneath the chest is where I used to have most of the problem with it.'' Another alternative might have been another event, like the butterfly or freestyle, but Flook admits those are not his strongest events.

"I was never much of a freestyler, butterflyer or backstroker, I sort of specialised in the breaststroke,'' he said.

"'Fly is the same sort of movement and I didn't have too much problem with the freestyle but once it's (injury) aggravated it's an irritating pain.

After those feats in Puerto Rico, Flook rose as high as 47th in the world ranking, but whether he can improve on that accomplishment remains to be seen.

At 22, he is in the `veteran' bracket as far as Bermudian swimmer goes, with Jenny Smatt having indicated after the Commonwealth Games that she was finished with international competition -- at the age of 20.

"In Bermuda that is getting old to be a swimmer because whereas in the States you can swim and still get funded. But if you're living here it's hard to work and swim at the same time,'' Flook stressed. "You're putting so much time in and it's taking so much out of you.

"The main thing right now is I'm not trying to think too far ahead, I jut want to see what Dr. Cooper says and work from there. If you think too far ahead you get your hopes up and then get disappointed.'' Flook admits it is difficult even to go to the BASA pool to watch competition.

"I find it's easier for me if I stay away. Right now with work I've been quite busy. I watch it on TV sometimes with meets from the States and you still get the butterflies. You want to jump in but it's that little injury that's holding you back.

"I thought about jumping in this Summer but I thought do I risk it and injure the shoulder worse. I've spoken to Stephen Fahy quite a bit, we're good mates and he calls me, and they all want me to come back but they all understand the problem that I have.'' CHRIS FLOOK -- Shows off his medals from the the 1993 CAC Games in Puerto Rico. Now his career is threatened by a shoulder injury.